Sawsan Kalache & Stefan Christoff writing from Beirut, Live from Lebanon (re-posted from Electronic intifada, http://electronicintifada.net)

Syrian TV images of the Israeli bombing of Beirut International Airport. Around the Arab world, people were glued to their television sets in horror at Israel’s decimation of the civilian infrastructure. (EI)

Israeli war planes are bombing Beirut. Over 50 Lebanese civilians have died since the Israeli military launched a major military offensive against Lebanon on Wednesday, July 12th. Bombs have targeted civilian infrastructure throughout the country, including key highways and bridges across southern Lebanon, effectively halting all cross-country transportation.

Israeli has imposed a full-out air, sea and land blockade on the entire country, bombing Beirut’s international airport and deploying war ships to patrol Lebanon’s waters. Streets in Lebanon’s capital are vacant, as Lebanese are glued to radios and TV sets, while the buzzing of Israeli military planes emanates from the night sky.

Commentators on local TV have been calling the Israeli attacks “the War of Bridges” because over 10 major transport bridges have been bombed. Entire regions of Lebanon’s south have been effectively isolated from the rest of the country as the Israeli military maintains its attacks on the area.

Explosions also damaged Beirut’s southern suburbs – home to the political headquarters of Hezbollah, which successfully captured two Israeli soldiers in a recent military operation, sparking the fury of Israeli attacks against Lebanon.

Sheikh Hasan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Hezbollah, speaking at a nationally televised press conference yesterday, stated that the Israeli prisoners would be released only in exchange for Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli prisons; a deal to be brokered through indirect negotiations.

Lebanese civilians flee Israeli destruction in the south. [Image: AP]

It is estimated that hundreds of Lebanese continue to be held in Israeli jails, the majority imprisoned during the large-scale indigenous resistance to Israel’s 22-year military occupation of southern Lebanon.

Lebanese political prisoners in Israel is an issue of long-standing national concern in Lebanon and has been frequently highlighted by Hezbollah in the long list of historical injustices committed by Israel against the Lebanese people. Samir Kuntar, one of these prisoners, has been held by Israel since 1979.

As Israeli planes continue to strike civilian targets, popular support for Hezbollah grows throughout the south. On Lebanon’s major news channels, interviews with residents of the region, who hold recent memories of the brutal Israeli occupation, have consistently voiced their endorsement of Hezbollah’s capture of the Israeli soldiers.

New TV Lebanon showed a series of interviews with people in southern Lebanon, where many villages have been targeted in the recent bombings. In one segment, featuring interviews around the site of a bombed bridge, a local resident exclaimed, “even with all this destruction, we are in full support of the resistance and are willing to support the resistance until the end.”

The far south of Lebanon, bordering Israel, the site of many of the recent Israeli attacks in the country. [Image: Stefan Christoff EI]

But in Beirut, voices exasperated with Hezbollah’s recent military actions are heard. Prime-Minister Fouad Siniora and the Lebanese cabinet have officially distanced themselves from Hezbollah, calling for an immediate, “comprehensive ceasefire”. A complaint to the U.N. about Israel’s military action has been filed by the Lebanese government, while Israel has filed its own complaint about Hezbollah’s actions.

As international diplomacy efforts commence, Israel continues to strike Lebanese territory. The Foreign Ministers of Arab states are calling an emergency meeting as has the U.N. Security Council. Meanwhile, U.S. President George Bush has defended Israel’s attack on Lebanon as an act of self-defense.

Israel’s major assault on Lebanon takes place as Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continue under military siege. In recent weeks, Israeli military forces launched the largest attack on the people of Gaza since the unilateral “withdrawal” of Israeli settlements in August 2005.

Parallels between the escalation in Lebanon and the continuing occupation of Palestine are made. Hezbollah cited the ongoing carnage in Gaza as a core reason for its military action, and Lebanese quickly drew the connection between the Israeli siege of their country and the occupation of Palestine.

Celebrations erupted in the Occupied Territories and in the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon after Hizbollah’s announcement of the successful capture of the two Israeli soldiers.

As night falls on Lebanon, bombs continue to fall from the skies. The tension on the streets of Beirut grows palpable as the Israeli government pledges to press forward with the assault. As the civilian death toll in Lebanon mounts, so does the rage across the country and across the Middle East.

This article was written for the Electronic Intifada by Sawsan Kalache and EI’s Stefan Christoff, who are currently in Lebanon on a delegation organized by Tadamon!, a collective of activists from Montreal working to build solidarity with social justice movements in Lebanon.

Link to this article on Electronic Intifada